De Laurentiis on James Rodriguez: 'Napoli is working on several tables'

29 June at 17:45

Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis has revealed that the club is in talks for James Rodriguez but they are also working on several other deals in the process.

James Rodriguez returned to Real Madrid after Bayern Munich did not buy him on a permanent basis. He is now close to moving to Napoli this summer, with an initial loan deal close. Napoli will have the obligation to sign the Colombian on a permanent basis next summer.

One of them was James. He said: "We play on more tables, we want to understand what is right to do for Naples."

On Kostas Manolas, he said: "I found at least five central defenders on the table, but we can't please everyone. There is uniqueness of direction and intent, the fans leave the decisions to us."

He also confirmed that Raul Albiol is close to a move to Villarreal. He said: "We accepted the request because we owed it to him, we cannot always say no. He had wanted to go away for two years but we convinced him to stay, now we could no longer.

"I am glad you are coming back to Spain. he has been important years. Last year we raised Maksimovic and Chiriches near Koulibaly, but we are trying to take a few more steps, let's see which way to go."